Tuesday, April 21, 2009

So I talked to my dad a little while ago and told him that I had started a blog to help put me through grad school. Actually first, I told him that I thought I had found a way to help pay for school - his response was "Is it legal?!" After reassuring him that it was totally legal, if not a little shady, I told him it was a blog. He then asked, "well what are you going to write about?" That's when I realized I had no idea. So I started thinking about it and I'm gonna keep it really random, just like me :) After watching the movie "Paperclips" as part of Holocaust Remembrance Week (which if you haven't heard about the paperclips project you should really watch) I want to share something that really influenced me.

While I was home for passover, I saw an absolutely incredible movie. I want as many people as possible to see it, because it is an unbelievably non-biased look at what happened in Israel during the disengagement from the settlements in the Gaza Strip in Aug. 2005. It follows, over a period of 6 days, the lives of 6 Israeli young adults. An Orthodox girl from one of the settlements who is also a filmmaker, two lifeguards from 'Palm Beach' in the Gaza Strip, one an Orthodox Jew, and the other a secular Jew, who just want to stay in their homes. On the other side, the film follows two soldiers who have been assigned by the IDF (Israel Defense Force) to uproot their fellow citizens from their homes in Gaza. Also, there is Ye'ela, who is working with the pro-disengagement movement, even though her sister was killed by a Palestinian terrorist.

The movie is incredibly moving, but it also is food for thought. Now, almost 4 years later, did it work? was it worth it? was it the right thing to do? I watched it with a great group of people and we had an awesome discussion about it afterwards.